


Ropes and nightmares

by Destinee Zara (LadyDestineeZara)



Series: Voltron Dark Week 2k18 [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Actors, Angst, Depression, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 17:28:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13463031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDestineeZara/pseuds/Destinee%20Zara
Summary: There was no escape for him in that life. Not until he payed Coran all his debt.After that…After that, Keith was nothing.He was nothing.And that hurts.(Written for the second day of the Dark Voltron Week hosted by darkvoltronweek.tumblr.com, theme "Mind Games/Slavery")





	Ropes and nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> Standard disclaimer: English is not my first language, so there is just one peculiarity before you start reading:  
> \- [Text after dashes] = TALKING (A Romance Language custom)  
> This story is un-edited (I had some issues with having it betaed), so pardon any English mistakes.
> 
> Written for the second day of the Dark Voltron Week hosted by darkvoltronweek.tumblr.com, theme "Mind Games/Slavery"
> 
> Now, to the story!

Keith was trembling. His smile was strained.

They had been shooting that scene over and over again.

For the last three days.

He hated that movie.

He hated that script.

He hated the crew.

He hated that life.

It was so terrible that he couldn’t even remember anymore why he chose to be an actor in the first place.

Why did he even choose that?

How could he?

All Keith remembered was to be “discovered” by the famous star headhunter and agent Coran.

He probably had been excited at some point.

Not anymore.

The director apparently noticed his hesitation during the scene and screamed it to be cut.

It wasn’t perfect.

They would have to shoot again.

Coran asked for a pause, and that made Keith feel numb.

He already knew what would happen now.

It was always like that.

Coran walked towards him and slapped his face.

\- You useless piece of shit! – his manager shouted – You don’t seem to do anything right, you spoiled brat!

He kept screaming.

The rest of the crew just shook their heads. Some smirked at the scene, chuckling to themselves.

Nobody stopped the manager.

Keith guessed that it was his fault. He was a difficult person anyway.

The only two people who were bothered by the scene didn’t intervened.

Lotor, the other protagonist on that specific movie, pretended not to see what was happening and walked away. Probably to go see their own agent, his father. Although Lotor envied Keith for his fame, Keith would change anything just to have at least one of his parents and to have them taking care of him instead of Coran.

The other person, Shiro, the makeup guy, clenched his fists and his jaw, frowning at the back of Coran’s head. However, he couldn’t intervene. He needed the money to pay his own medical bills (it was not cheap to come back from Afghanistan without an arm and with PTSD).

Or maybe none of them intervened because Keith was in fact a piece of shit, an useless person overall, a terrible actor and a spoiled brat. It was hard not to believe that with his own agent telling him that every day.

When Coran stopped screaming, the director decided to end the shooting for the day.

Still feeling numb, Keith made a beeline to grab a cup of water.

(He couldn’t eat anymore that day. According to Coran, he had already eaten all the carbs and proteins he deserved, since he had been lazy and failed to exercise. He didn’t want to get fat… He couldn’t get fat).

Shiro was right behind him.

\- Hey. - he said softly.

Even with the quiet tone, Keith was startled.

Shiro showed the palm of his hands in a peaceful gesture and offered him a tiny gentle smile.

\- Hey… Are you ok? - he asked with an even softer tone.

From a distance, he could see Coran glaring at him.

Fearing another angry lecture, Keith forced another smile.

\- Yeah, everything’s great!

Shiro looked over his shoulder frowning before turning to Keith with another gentle smile.

\- So, I was thinking of grabbing some coffee now. Wanna come? Just the two of us.

For the first time in the whole day, Keith felt his face turning into a genuine smile. His heart beat fast, as it always did when he was near Shiro. There was something about him that made Keith feel lighter, hopeful and horny. 

It was so rare for him nowadays to feel good about anything...

He felt like the luckiest person in the world on that fleeting moment.

\- I’d lo-

\- He can’t. – Coran interrupted.

He had walked closer to them and now was looking down at Keith.

Keith swallowed and nodded.

\- Yes, I can’t. – he said robotically before adding quietly – I’m sorry.

Shiro took a step in order to stand between Coran and Keith. He ignored the manager.

\- You need to relax. Go out a little.

Coran walked around Shiro and put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith shuddered.

\- He’s fine. Thank you for your concern.

Shiro narrowed his eyes. Keith was positive that he was angry with him.

He was just so stupid.

He couldn't please not even the nicest person on the set.

\- I just think he needs to breath-

\- That’s none of your business, makeup boy. – Coran cut him – Go clean some brushes. The star need to rest.

He squeezed Keith’s shoulder to the point of pain. Keith knew what that meant, and obediently followed his agent lead, back to his trailer.

As soon as they were alone, Coran let out a scornful smile.

\- Soooo… you little faggot thought that he could just go out peacocking around.

Keith looked down biting his lip.

\- Coran, it was just coffee.

\- It was a PR nightmare, that’s what it was. You’re so dumb that you couldn’t even think beyond your sick perverted fantasies.

He sighed dramatically.

\- I’ll have to use some money to try to keep that from leaking.

Keith nodded, still not looking at Coran.

\- I… I understand…

\- Of course you do. – a scornful laugh – But that means that you’re even in more debt with me. You are just _so_ lucky that I’m a forgiving and patient man. Other people would’ve already dumped your talentless ass.

It have been a while since Keith had received more than a couple of thousand dollars. He was in so much debt with Coran that he would have to work in at least other three movies to pay for that. It didn’t matter if it those were big productions. Keith’s money was all to pay Coran.

He just couldn’t do anything right on his own.

He was useless.

\- Besides, - the manager continue – It’s not like anyone would ever like a wimp like you. I mean, you might have a pretty face, but why would anyone, especially Shirogane, ever like such a stupid pussy orphan like you? He’d get tired and annoyed in less than two hours, that’s for certain.

He laughed.

Keith let a few tears roll on his face.

Coran smirked at that.

\- Now, go to sleep. We start early tomorrow. And don’t you dare to be fucking late again, you piece of shit.

The manager walked out of the trailer to his sport car. He was in a five star hotel not too far from the set.

Keith stayed there, without moving for a few moments.

He was such a failure.

Coran was probably right: how could anyone ever like him?

He had no other friends.

His own father had abandoned him.

His manager seemed to be the only one who gave a shit about him. Even he was pissed with Keith.

He was a disgrace, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Keith couldn’t even please the only person he cared about, the friendly makeup artist.

There was no escape for him in that life. Not until he payed Coran all his debt.

After that…

After that, Keith was nothing.

He was nothing.

And that hurts.

Still feeling numb, Keith sighed and walked towards his bedroom area on the trailer, a small cot with a thin mattress.

He had some rope left after all.

And he read somewhere that all he needed was a door to hang himself.

That wouldn’t be a problem. The trailer had an inner bathroom with a door.

He was just sorry that his body would bother the people who would have to clean the trailer after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Making off of the story:
> 
> Necromancy, suicide... all the good stuff for dark week LOL  
> But that will be it. I think I won't do more stuff for it. I have other projects to care about ._.
> 
> Ahem, anyway, I know this fanfic is kinda shitty compared to other stuff I had written in the past. I have to confess that this is kinda a cathartic fanfic to me. Like, unfortunately I'm a med student and right now I'm on the psychiatric internship. It's really awful to hear people talk every day about thinking of suicide or how desperate they are or about how they fear for stuff.  
> Somehow, writting this kinda made me feel better about all that. Weird, huh?  
> Besides, I kinda didn't like the themes *awkward laugh* so this was the only full Idea I had yesterday (yes, I know I'm late). 
> 
> I know I could have made one of the Galra be the evil agent(manager), but since S4, evil Coran can be a thing LOL. 
> 
> For this, I used a less traditional idea for slavery. Like, there are a lot of abuse (mind games), but the main inspiration for this were some theories about _Don't hug me I'm scared_ and me thinking about what some artists go through on the companies (I'm thinking about Kesha for example and all her awful situation). 
> 
> You may be asking yourself: why did I pick Keith to be the victim? Why not Lance (since this fandom loves to make him the victim)?  
> Well, _Keith_ is always the best choice for an abuse victim. He's an orphan with absolute no family present (that we know) and very few friends (in the canon, Shiro seemed to be the only one before Voltron happened). He never fights back when people call him names (in the few situations that happened in the series) and he seems to suffer in silence instead of reaching out for help and comfort (like on S4E1, for example).  
>  From a writer's perspective, he's the perfect abuse victim.  
> That's why I made the executive decision for that to happen. 
> 
> And it doesn't matter the universe: Keith and Shiro were made to fall in love with each other <3 Here it's just some pinning, but they would be together if they could. 
> 
> I ended the story there because it's dark week, so there's never a happy ending.  
>  ~~But I kinda imagine a immediate continuation (that I'm not going to write, so don't ask please) with Shiro finding Keith before it's too late and taking him to the hospital and to a safe enviroment~~
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you have enjoyed it! Leave a kudo and a comment if you liked!
> 
> I'm on tumblr if you want to find me, [@wonderland-s-angel](http://wonderland-s-angel.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> Comments help me to get going, you know. Like, SERIOUSLY, they keep me going. I feed on them and I'm always hungry.
> 
> I hope I’ll see ya tomorrow.
> 
> Bye-bye! o/


End file.
